MOCA Performs – An Afternoon of Letters, Narratives and Stories

What was it like for the Chinese Americans throughout and after World War II? What happened across the Taiwan Strait? How does that part of history inform who we are as Chinese Americans nowadays? The Museum of Chinese in America (MOCA) brings the history alive through a series of letter reading and storytelling.

Inspired by the Marcella B. Chin Dear Collection, MOCA will host a performance evening of letters, stories, and narratives at the Rego Park branch of Queens Public Library. In this performance, the audience will have the opportunity to listen to the collection of letters from the Marcella B. Chin Dear family, who came to New York in the 1800s and established a series of successful business ventures in Chinatown. An ensemble of readers will guide the audience into the life of Chinese Americans between the 1940s and 1950s, their involvement in WWII, and reflect on how the political dynamics and the integration into American society have shaped their identity nowadays.

Readers:
Nancy Ma, Louis So, Yanzi Ding